Friday, October 12, 2012

It's an ill wind ...

The news of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to the EU, apart from causing a great deal of entertainment, has also provided the Leader of UKIP with a great deal of publicity. He seems to be the top man to be quoted everywhere, for instance in this headline on AFP: Farage and Redwood condemn EU Nobel Peace Prize. There are many more as a brief consultation with Mr Google will show. (So, can we have no more nonsense about UKIP not getting any media attention, please?)

Glenn Reynolds weighs in on the debate as to what is more embarrassing, awarding that prize to President Obama less than a year after his inauguration or to the EU."AT LEAST WHEN THEY GAVE OBAMA THE PRIZE, HE HADN’T FAILED YET." Hadn't thought of it in those terms but he is right.

Frida Ghitis argues that the Committee lost an excellent opportunity to show that it really believes in peace and freedom. True, but hardly for the first time though, possibly, Ms Ghitis did not notice it before. Or, maybe, she mentions this every year.

Kristian Berg Harpviken, the Director of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, was interviewed on the subject and sounded a little bemused, not to say irritated. He also pointed to an important aspect:
It's a bit different, though, in Norway and internationally. In Norway, this decision is deemed to stir considerable controversy, precisely because the issue of EU membership is so controversial in Norway, and many critics here see this already as the politicians on the Nobel Committee trying to use their platform there to affect Norwegian domestic politics.
In fact, Norway has voted twice to stay out of the EU but it is well known that Thorbjørn Jagland, the Chairman of the Peace Prize Committee and a man with an "interesting" political career, would like to see the question reopened and Norway vote the right way at last.

The all-important question remains: which president will go to Oslo to collect the prize? The secondary question is what will happen to the money? I suppose it could be thrown into the general melting pot of debt and default.


5 comments:

  1. Jagland.....a man with an "interesting" political career

    Helen,

    Why so coy?

    Apart from a history of general incompetence and sloth, including started but never finished studies in economics, Jagland was a "confidential KGB source" (or as Lenin would have called him, a useful idiot). Internally in KGB he went under the call name "Juri" and was a useful source for political information. According to reports he had also been used as a "channel for active measures", including the question of nuclear free zones in the Nordic countries. These contacts were brought to light by the Soviet defector Mikhail Butkov.

    Jagland defended himself that he did not do anything but his normal duties, and though he never reported his contacts to the Norwegian security services, he did report to the people in charge of the Norwegian Labour party. (Hoops!)

    In the same program on Norwegian television that Butkov and Jagland were discussed, Jens Stoltenberg also was mentioned - another Labour party luminary. Those who follow Norwegian politics may recognise him as the present Norwegian PM.

    Quote (my transl): "Jens Stoltenberg's contact with the KGB officer Boris Kirillov led to KGB in 1989 giving him the cover/file name "Steklov". A dossier on Stoltenberg was put together at the Centre in Moscow containing personal and political information. The dossier was of the form DOR (Delo operativnoj razrabotki). These kind of files were usually restricted to people in an advanced state of cultivation, or persons already counted as confidential sources.

    Looks like Arne Treholt was not alone - he was just unlucky to get caught.

    /Mikgen

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  2. I wanted people to read it all for themselves, Mikgen. But, maybe, I should put this up on the main page of the blog as something that was sent to me by one of the blog's readers.

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  3. You wonder who would be the best person to collect the "eu" Nobel Peace Prize ?

    May I suggest the Secretary General of The Council of Europe ? = Thorbjørn_Jagland

    ( = Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee)

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  4. (You can not make this stuff up)

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  5. Well, that is one possibility. Unfortunately, the EU is rather jealous of the fact that the Council of Europe is a separate organization. Another one we should leave as soon as possible.

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